More than 45,000 workers of the Chilean national copper company Codelco joined this Wednesday the national strike called by the unions in protest against the decision of the government of Gabriel Boric to close the “Windows Foundry” (which belongs to the National Copper Corporation of Chile), one of the 18 companies that have turned the Quintero-Puchncaví bay into one of the places most polluted in South America.
The forceful measure coincided this Wednesday with the announcement by the Minister of Finance, Mario Marce, of the signing of a reinvestment plan that contemplates the injection of 30% on average of the profits corresponding to four years and seeks to prevent the operators of the Foundry Windows lose their jobs.
However, the unions believe that this is una “improvised decision” by President Gabriel Boricwho already in his electoral campaign promised end this and other industrial “sacrifice areas” where human life is no longer healthy.
Pollution affects children and forces schools to close. Photo: Lucas Aguayo, special for Clarín
The strike began on Tuesday but it was this Wednesday when it took on a greater dimension once the festive day had passed, and it took place just two weeks after a new peak of excessive pollution It caused the intoxication of about 150 people, mostly children, and forced the closure of schools and once again paralyzed daily life.
Barricades and traffic cuts
At dawn, representatives of 26 unions gathered around the aforementioned industrial belt, erecting barricades, setting fire to wood and tires, and trying to cut off traffic and access to the work divisions.
According to the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), the decision of the board of directors of the state giant and the Government “does not measure the social effects that it has in a community that has lived around this industry in the bay of Quintero and Puchuncaví”.
At dawn, representatives of 26 unions gathered in the industrial belt. Photo: Lucas Aguayo, special for Clarín.
“The beginning of the closure (of the Ventanas Foundry) is not supported nor justified in any “technical, scientific or academic” report that demonstrates the cause-effect relationship of the release of sulfur dioxide with the pollution and poisoning of people,” the organization said in a statement.
In addition, they affirmed from the FTC, the closure resolution “does not affect any of the other companies of the Industrial Complex and therefore it is an arbitrary discrimination against the workers of the public company.”
environmental sacrifice zone
The Quintero-Puchuncaví bay, 160 kilometers northwest of Santiago, was declared in 1993 as an “environmental sacrifice zone”, an unhealthy 8 kilometer strip of beach in which 18 plants are concentrated that discharge into the atmosphere and the sea amounts of pollution that They are not compatible with human life.
According to data provided by the Government to the local press, since 2005 Codelco has invested close to 156 million dollars to comply with the different environmental regulations, money that has not served to curb sulfur dioxide emissions (SO2).
Quintero-Puchncaví Bay in one of the most polluted places in South America. Photo: Lucas Aguayo, special for Clarín
The Executive’s calculations suggest that it would take more than 1,150 million dollars additions to conform to international standards.
Chile, the leading exporter of the red metal globally, It brings together 28% of world copper production and giants such as BHP, Anglo American and Antofagasta Minerals operate in the country.
The current mobilizations take place in an international economic context marked by the decline of copper and the constant rise of the dollar, which is expected to continue breaking record highs during these days.
Mining, which represents close to 10% of the national GDP, is playing a fundamental role in the country’s economic recovery after the pandemic.
EFE
ap